1. To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
2. For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,
3. Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,
4. Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
5. Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned,
6. In process of the seasons have I seen,
7. Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
8. Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
9. Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand,
10. Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
11. So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
12. Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
13. For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:
14. Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.

This
sonnet is thought by many to be one of
the so called 'dating' sonnets. If we could determine the date when
youth
and poet first met, so the argument runs, we could then decide when
this
sonnet was written. This may be so, but it has been pointed out that
the
three year period mentioned in lines 3-7 is probably only notional, a
conventional
time span for love to build and fructify. Ronsard, Desportes, Daniel
and
others celebrated a three year span of loving allegiance (JK. p.308).
Horace
is also suggested as the originator of the three year statutory period
of
grace, when he sings of his passion for Inachia. hic tertius December ex quo destiti
Inachia furere, silvis honorem decutit.
Epodes.XI.5-6.
'This is the third December, since I at last ceased
to seethe in
love for Inacchia, which now shakes down from the trees all their
glory.'
It is known that Daniel changed the original three year time span in
his
'Delia' sonnets to five in the revised edition of 1594. (GBE.p.212). It
seems clear that the three year time span given in this poem is at best
unreliable.

However I
propose another, rather more brutal
form of dating, derived from the numbers themselves. The successive use
of threes suggests either that we add them together, or multiply them,
giving
a direct reference to either 1599, or 1604, perhaps both. The 1599 date
is obtained by multiplying the threes of lines 3 and 4 and the two
threes
of line 7 (ignoring line 5), or by adding the three of lines 3, 4 and
5.
This gives the two nines of the date 1599, the fifteen having to be
supplied
by imagination or inference. In any case it ties in with the 1599 date
which
I believe to have been already signalled by sonnet 99, with its fifteen
lines.
The 1604 date is arrived at by adding the two threes of lines 3 and 4,
and
also of lines 7 and 8. In fact only one 6 is required, the other being
a
sort of bonus, or emphasis. The six is inserted into the sonnet number,
104, giving 1604. Both dates, 1599 and 1604, are probably relevant to
the
composition of the sonnets, whether as starting or finishing points, or
perhaps marking significant dates in the relationship. See for example
KDJ,
Introduction, pp.21-4, for a discussion of the later date in relation
to
Sonnet 107. For the earlier date see my commentary on Sonnet
99.

THE 1609
QUARTO VERSION

104

T

O me faire friend
you neuer
can be old,
For as you were when firſt your eye I eyde,

Such
ſeemes your beautie ſtill:Three
winters colde,
Haue from the forreſts ſhooke three ſummers pride,
Three beautious ſprings to yellow Autumne turn'd,
In proceſſe of the ſeaſons haue I ſeene,
Three Aprill perfumes in three hot Iunes burn'd,
Since firſt I ſaw you freſh which yet are greene.
Ah yet doth beauty like a Dyall hand,
Steale from his figure,and no pace perceiu'd,
So your ſweete hew,which me thinkes ſtill doth ſtand
Hath motion,and mine eye may be deceaued.
For feare of which,heare this thou age vnbred,
Ere you were borne was beauties ſummer dead.

Interesting
though all this discussion of
dates is, it must be admitted that it is unverifiable, and based
entirely
on informed guesswork. It is also a matter of no great import, save
that
it does gives us a general idea of when the sonnets were most probably
written,
and it shifts the focus away, for example, from the very early dates at
one time attributed to them, during the major part of the 19th and 20th
centuries, when the concern was chiefly to pass the works off as
apprentice
pieces, lest the great bard should be in some way morally stigmatised
by
his confessions of love. Nowadays, and perhaps for only a brief period
in
human history, we are less disturbed by such matters and can discuss
them
with relative freedom. We can therefore look at all the proposed
frameworks
of composition with equanimity, and it does seem that, in recent years,
a date centred around the turn of the century, i.e. 1600, has become
more
favoured as the probable date of composition.

One other point in
connection with the number of
this sonnet, which deserves a brief mention, is that 104 in weeks
corresponds
to exactly two years. The number itself may therefore be a wry comment
on
the three years sprinkled so liberally throughout, or it may suggest
that
we should multiply them by two to give us the six of 1604, or it may
serve
as emphasis of the two nines of 1599, (or it may be doing none of these
things and be merely an irrelevant number).

1. To me, fair friend, you
never can be old,

1.
Perhaps this line responds to the suggestions
in the previous sonnets that the mirror is beginning to show lines and
wrinkles
in the beloved's face. Or perhaps it is intended as a reassuring
declaration
by the poet, that for him nothing will change, despite the transience
of
the world all around him. It may have sprung from private
conversations,
and from comments made by the young man. In substance it foreshadows
the
famous declaration of faith of Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments;

2. For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,

2. when
first your eye I eyed = when
I first set eyes on you, when I first looked into your face. The
repetition
of sound (ay ay ayed) is considered by some commentators to be puerile.
(See however the comment of HV, p.442). In any case it is the sort of
linguistic
device which rather amused and challenged Elizabethan writers. Compare
No.5
in Drayton's Sonnet Sequence 'Idea':, published first in 1599.
Nothing but 'No'! and 'I'! and 'I'! and 'No'!. The complete sonnet is given below at the bottom of the
page.

3. Such seems your beauty still. Three winters
cold,

3. seems
= appears, is. The use of seems
seems innocent enough, until one remembers the use of the glass
(mirror)
in the previous sonnet, and the suspicions that Shakespeare attaches to
'seeming' in contrast to 'being'. Perhaps the beauty which seems so
beauteous
is not really so, but is already corrupted by lines and wrinkles, and
perhaps
by moral decay. The sudden introduction of three winters cold
at
the end of the line is like an icy shock which brings one back to
reality,
and challenges the already shaky assurance of such seems your
beauty
still.
cold - this is usually taken to be an adjective, viz. 'three
cold winters',
but it could also be read as a noun, the meaning being 'the successive
cold
of three winters'.

4. Have from the forests shook three summers'
pride,

4.summer's
pride = the glorious growth
of summer. pride is often associated in the
sonnets with a rich appearance.
(See 25, 52, 80, 99). These two lines echo those from Horace
hic tertius December (ex quo destiti
Inachia furere), silvis honorem decutit.
See the introduction above.

5. Three beauteous springs
to yellow autumn turned,

5. Autumn
is characterised by the colour of
yellow. Compare:When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 73
Nowadays we tend to think of the colours more as tan and russet,
especially
the autumn leaves. Shakespeare may have been thinking more of the gold
of
the cornfields.

6. In process of the
seasons have I seen,

6. This
line can be read either as a continuation
of the previous one, or as introductory to that which follows.
In process of = in the progress of (OED 1.a.) The word is
close to the
modern usage of 'procession'.

7. Three April perfumes in
three hot Junes burned,

7. See the
comments on three in the introductory
notes. The perfumes of the spring are burned dry by the heat of the
summer.

8. Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are
green.

8. Since
first I saw you fresh - perhaps
similar in meaning to since first your eye I eyed,
although here
the emphasis is on the youth's freshness and vigour, which still
remains
unaltered. which yetare = who still
remains, who is still; green - at times this can have a slightly
pejorative meaning, or
carries a hint of foolish innocence. Compare Cleopatra commenting on
her
youthful days:
.................My salad days
When I was green in judgement, cold in blood,
To say as I said then. AC.I.5.73-5.Here however the emphasis seems to be on freshness and
vigour, as in
the lush growth of springtime.

9. Ah! yet doth beauty like
a dial-hand,

9. a
dial hand = the hand on a clock
dial. Many clocks of the Elizabethan age only had an hour hand, which
would
appear to move even more imperceptibly than the minute hand.

10. Steal from his figure,
and no pace perceived;

10. Steal
from his figure = move stealthily
away from the number which it appears to be pointing to. his = its. no pace perceived = no movement is noticeable
or perceptible.
9-10 The reference may have been to a sundial. the meanings given here
are
for a clock face.

11. So your sweet hue, which methinks still
doth stand,

11. hue
= colour, facial appearance,
as in Sonn. 20
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling

which
methinks =
which I think, which I am inclined to think; still doth stand = remains motionless; or, is
still as it was (when
I first saw you).

13. For
fear of which - i.e. fearing
this, (that you are in fact ageing rapidly but imperceptibly). thou age unbred - the age yet unborn. Perhaps
with a hint of 'you
uncouth ages yet to be!', since unbred could imply
lack of breeding,
coming from poor stock.

14. Ere you were born was
beauty's summer dead.

14. Ere
you were born = before you, the
forthcoming age, were yet born. beauty's summer = beauty in its prime, in its
full glory, i.e., the
beloved youth, (was already dead). I.e. you will never have any chance
of
seeing what true beauty is like.

Nothing but 'No'! and 'I'! and 'I'!
and 'No'!.
'How falls it out so strangely?', you
reply.
I tell ye Fair! I'll not be answered so!
[*Ay.]
With this affirming 'No'!, denying 'I'!
I say 'I love'! You slightly answer 'I'!
I say 'You love'! You pule me out a
'No'!.
I say 'I die'! You echo me with 'I'!
'Save me'! I cry; you sigh me out a
'No'!.
Must Woe and I have
naught but 'No' ! and
'I'! ?
No 'I'! am I if I no more can have.
Answer no more. With silence make reply,
And let me take myself what I do crave.
Let 'No'! and 'I'! with I and you be so,
Then answer 'No'! and 'I'! and 'I'! and
'No'!

Michael Drayton's
'Idea. In Sixty Three Sonnets'
was published first in 1594, and in various curtailed or augmented
editions
until the final edition of 1619. This sonnet appeared in the 1599
edition.
It is reprinted here from Sidney Lee, Elizabethan Sonnets, An English
Garner,
Westminster, 1904, Vol II, p.183.

Because they are so
much in the forefront of our
awareness, we tend to assume that Shakespeare's Sonnets set the norm
for
the time. This is definitely not so and for the first use of many of
the
quirks and curiosities of the genre one must look beyond the
Shakespearian
canon to see how the Sonneteers contemporary with him were developing
and
expanding the form.

It is hoped in due
course to provide a full on-line
version of Lee's Elizabethan Sonnets, since it contains much material
which
is relevant to a study of Shakespeare's Sonnets, although it is not
readily
available elsewhere.